Team Caffeine Takes the Sky
by imnottoosure
Summary: In this EOS retelling (seen enough of these yet?), join a cynical once-a-human Shinx and an eccentric Bulbasaur on the journey of a lifetime! Rated T for violence, language, and mild alcohol consumption.
1. Chapter 1

My head was _pounding_.

That was the only thing I could even begin to comprehend at the moment.

I tried my best to take in my surroundings, but it was to no avail. I thought I heard what sounded like waves, and the ground felt soft like sand. That would mean I was on a beach, which would be impossible. There were no beaches in the Midwest. I was drifting back off into sleep. Hopefully I didn't have a concussion, that probably wouldn't end well for me.

It was no use, I was getting lulled back to unconsciousness. I swore I saw a figure coming towards me. I prayed it wasn't some wild animal that would eat anything. Or some dangerous native Pokemon that could burn, shock, poison, or otherwise endanger me.

I was only asleep for maybe a minute before someone started shaking me. Now I was just getting cranky. I heard a muffled voice along with the violent shaking.

"Hey, get up…c'mon, please get up…" He sounded worried about me, but it wasn't a voice I recognized.

Eventually I did get up, and immediately felt very off.

First of all, there was nobody around who could talk, only a lone Bulbasaur stood in front of me. Speaking of that Bulbasaur, he was eye level to me despite me standing up tall. Something was very off here. Nothing could have prepared me for what would happen next.

"Thank goodness you're up! Are you okay?" The, and I kid you not, Bulbasaur said to me.

I looked at him in shock and awe. Pokemon talking!? That was only heard of in a few select ones, and even then it was incredibly rare! I had heard of some psychic types being able to communicate via telepathy, but a measly Bulbasaur? Unheard of! I cleared my incredibly dry throat before finally being able to speak.

"You…can talk? How can you talk!?" I said with a hint of curiosity, but mostly shock.

He looked very confused, judging by his head tilting slightly to the right.

"Um, what do you mean? Of course I can talk! Did you hit your head or something?"

He began walking around me to look for any injuries, at least that's what I think he was doing. This is when I noticed even more oddities in this situation. The fact we were still eye level confused me, but my whole body felt unnatural. I did not feel as if I was in my body. I must be dreaming, this whole experience felt surreal.

"Do you have a trainer? If so, where are they? I need to figure out where the hell I am." I asked with possibly too much aggression. I was again greeted with a confused look.

"Trainer? What's that?" He seemed to be looking deeper into my eyes with each confusing question, as if he was trying to figure me out.

"Y'know, like, your owner?" I tried to explain, albeit a little roughly. This seemed to lead the poor guy into more confusion. He even looked a bit offended.

"What!? Nobody _owns_ me! You must have hit your head really hard to think of something like that." He went on, "Say, I haven't seen you around before. Are you from around here?"

I took a look around my surroundings. My previous thought was correct. I am indeed on a beach. This means I am definitely not at home. Beaches simply did not exist around my home. In fact, this beach seemed different from the ones I've been to. It felt more naturalistic, less tourism influence on the landscape. There were large cliffsides around us, and in the distance there was what seemed to be the king of them all. It looked suspiciously like a Sharpedo head was carved into the cliffside. I suppose that was the tourism influence here. No way was that natural.

The beach itself was rather pretty. I noticed some Krabby were blowing their bubbles all over the place. It made the ocean view rather beautiful. On one side of the beach, far away from us, there was what seemed to be a gravel-dirt path that disappeared into the trees. The exit closer to us seemed to be a cave structure. What the hell a cave was doing by a beach I had no idea. I had easily concluded I was not home.

This lead to more questions by me. I tried to remember the previous night, but I could not for the life of me. I tried to go further back, but I couldn't. This was just great, I seemed to have lost any memory of whatever happened to end me up here. In fact, I couldn't really remember much at all. I shook my head at the Bulbasaur, indicating I had no clue where I was.

"Hmm…I figured as much. I haven't seen any Shinx around here before. What brings you around here?"

Wait. What? When did a Shinx come into the equation?

"What are you talking about? I don't see any Shinx around here." I questioned.

He seemed a bit agitated with me at this point.

"Erm, have you looked at yourself?" He said with a bit of anger.

Something was very wrong. I turned to look down at the ocean water. I gazed intently to be able to see my reflection. If you thought the Bulbasaur talking was crazy, this part will make you want to lock me up.

I didn't see my face staring back. I saw a Shinx's face.

I screamed with pure horror, which seemed to scare the Bulbasaur more than anything. Panic took over as I stepped backwards, only to trip over what felt like a pair of legs. I tumbled backwards and faceplanted into the sand. The Bulbasaur went up to me and tried to help me up. I graciously accepted his help and tried to balance myself on four legs. This was not happening to me.

"You're…a little odd…" The Bulbasaur said.

"Y-You need to listen to me!" I turned to him, "I am _not_ a Shinx! I'm a human! I must be dreaming, or hallucinating, or SOMETHING!"

The poor guy looked frantic.

"A what!? You're a human!? That's impossible! Humans only exist in fairy tales. Quit pulling my leg!"

Excuse me? Fairy tales!?

"I'm not pulling any damn legs here! I have no idea who I am or where I am! But I _know_ I'm supposed to be a human!"

"You don't know who you are? Do you at least know your name?" He questioned.

I thought that over for a second. Yes, I think I did remember my name.

"…Maki. My name is Maki." I replied.

"Okay, your name is Maki. You're a human who has what seems to be amnesia, and you somehow got turned into a Shinx." He said pretty calmly for how fucked-up this situation was.

"Yes!"

I could tell he was definitely having a hard time believing this story, and I can't say I blame him. It did sound pretty outrageous. Despite that, this was a total stranger. What benefit would I have to lie to some random Pokemon?

"Well I've basically given you my damn memoir. What's your name at least?" I asked, at least trying to be social.

"Oh, my name's Spuds!" He said happily.

Spuds? Like, as in a potato? I would ask that but I'm afraid that may hurt his feelings. He's clearly trying to process all this right now and getting snippy with him probably wouldn't help.

It was at this time I noticed two more figures coming from the difference. They were both in the air, one flying and one hovering. They were coming in fast. And they didn't look to friendly. They looked like they were about to charge Spuds.

"Hey! Watch ou-AH!" He was thrown into me by the figure, who I deduced was a Koffing. I noticed Spuds had dropped a rock of some kind. He quickly got up and shook his head before turning around to face the assailants.

"What was that for!?"

"Whoa-ho-ho, look at the big mouth of the baby!" The Koffing said, in the smoker's voice I had figured he would have.

"We'd love to chat crybaby, but we have business to take care of." The Zubat screeched before grabbing the rock Spuds had dropped. Spuds had immediately looked shocked and sad. I really didn't have it in me to say much in this situation, I was too thrown off by everything. The Zubat and Koffing went into the cave near us, cackling the whole way without even as much as a grunt from Spuds. I finally managed to speak up after the whole ordeal was over.

"Um, aren't you gonna go after them or something?" I looked over to him when I heard him sniffle.

I couldn't believe my eyes. He was crying. Like, a lot. I was speechless. I simply stared at him with my mouth agape.

"That…was my precious…treasure…oh god they took it…they…"

In the span of six seconds, he went from crying his eyes out to a look of determination. What a bi-polar guy he was.

"No! There's no time to waste! We have to get it back!"

We? Well now that didn't sound right. Did he really expect me to help him out here? He confirmed my suspicions with his next words.

"Hurry Maki! We have to get a move on! We need to go after them!"

"We? Uh, dude I don't think that's happening. I have no clue where the hell I am or what the hell's going on. I need to figure some things out." I said with an uninterested look on my face.

"Please Maki! I need help here! I can't do this alone…" He said, pleading more.

"Look man, you seem like a nice guy really, but I can't!" I started to get frustrated.

He had a more desperate sad look on his face now. I could see tears welling up again. Oh brother.

"Please…" He blubbered.

"I would love to help but I'm a human in a Shinx's body! I need to figu-"

"AH! Human, Pokemon, ghost, whatever the hell you are I just need your help!" He yelled.

Jesus, how can he just switch emotions with the snap of a finger? Before I knew it I was being dragged by him towards the cave.

"Wha- HEY! What do you think your doing!? Let go of me!" I demanded.

"Just help me with this and I'll let you go!" He replied, but is was less of a request and more of a command. I could see there was no getting out of this by now. I had no choice but to help him. I showed him my approval with a loud groan.

He eventually stopped dragging me along when he realized I wouldn't fight this anymore. We were now walking beside each other, observing the cave structure. It was rather eloquent looking. The stalactites were dripping with water, which formed various puddles around us. The whole place had a very aquatic looking aura around it. I was still getting used to walking on four feet, so this whole excursion wasn't so pleasant as I make it sound. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to switch from bipedal to a quadruped. I could tell Spuds was in awe over the cave system. There was a large number of twists and corridors, which really made learning to walk even more difficult. We had continued on our merry way for quite some time until we encountered a couple of Shellos wandering about. Spuds immediately stood his ground. I looked at him with confusion.

"Uh, what's up?"

"Careful Maki! This could be trouble!" He said without taking his eyes off the pair of slugs.

"Oh don't be ridiculous. These things are just like us!" I said walking over to prove a point. I approached one of the Shellos and tried to greet it, but was instead blinded but a shot of mud it spewed out at me. I gagged and backpedaled as quick as I could.

"Never mind! Never mind! Kill it Spuds!" I ordered while trying to rub the mud off my eyes.

I couldn't see much due to the grime that was stuck to me, but I did hear some childish wails and smacks. When I finally got the stuff off, I could only see the after-effects of the battle. The two Shellos laid still on the ground while Spuds had two vines retract themselves into his bulb. I looked over to him.

"So…couldn't you have done that when those two took your rock?" I questioned, with probably a bit too much sass. He lowered his head in shame upon hearing my comment.

"Probably…I was just too scared to do it. Those Shellos were just savages, but the two who took my treasure were civilized…it's different!" Well there was one similarity our worlds had. It didn't really make sense to me though. Spuds said humans were a fairy tale, so how could Pokemon ever become civilized in the first place? Did they have cities? Towns? Have they discovered sciences and technology? My thought process was cut short as we reached an opening in the cave. The hall seemed to open up to a large room. It seemed pretty barren, thankfully no wild Pokemon around. There was however a seed on the ground. Well now that was odd. I picked it up and examined it. It had a red lining to it, but other than that it looked like just any old seed. I threw it up into the air and caught it again, just in general fucking around with it. Spuds noticed that and run over to steal it from me.

"Hey! I found that!" I complained.

"Watch what you're doing man! Sweet Arceus you could have blown yourself to bits!" He said as he put the seed gently down on the ground.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I said with a slightly rude tone.

"You really aren't from around here are you?" No of course not, "This is a Blast Seed! Any form of rough contact with it will make it explode! It can seriously injure any Pokemon it comes into contact with!" He said with the most concerned tone I've ever heard. If something like that exists so frequently, this place must be incredibly dangerous. How wonderful for me. Spuds looked satisfied with scolding me and picked up the Blast Seed and put it in this little knapsack he had with him. I only just noticed it around him. It kind of made him look like an explorer of some kind.

We continued our trek through the dungeon, thankfully not running into any more aggressive Pokemon on the way. We eventually found what seemed to be an exit out of the cave. Good lord this place was expansive. We exited into this little sand grove that seemed to be here for no reason other than being a dead end. Thankfully, Zubat and Koffing were here as well. Spuds looked angry, but he was shaking too. I could tell he was trying to get their attention by yelling at him, but it wasn't working out well. Looks like that was up to me.

"HEY ASSHOLES! TURN AROUND!" I yelled at them. They immediately turned around to see me and Spuds there. The Koffing grinned as he saw us.

"Whoa-ho-ho, well if it isn't the big crybaby! Surprised to see you actually come here!"

"Heh-heh-heh, but it looks like you needed to bring some random guy in to help you! How pathetic!" The Zubat screeched in his high-pitched voice. Spuds had visibly lowered himself upon hearing that, perhaps finally feeling some guilt for literally dragging me into this mess. Like so many times already, he perked up immediately. Now, there was anger on his face.

"Give…Give me back what you stole from me!" He commanded. This only seemed to make the two dicks grin more. I could already tell this wasn't going to be a peaceful transaction. Hopefully Spuds could handle these guys, as I had no idea how to fight. I figured since these guys were civilized, they would also be much more of a challenge.

"Whoa-ho-ho! Someone's getting cocky now!" The smoker said. "We overheard you talking about how precious this thing was…perhaps it would be a good selling piece?" The fact that he was constantly coughing while talking really made him seem less threatening.

"Y-You can't do that!" Spuds pleaded, but I doubt that would do much.

"Heh-heh-heh, well if you want it back so badly…" The Zubat said as the two of them looked ready for assault. "Then why don't you come get it!"

Yeah I had a feeling this would happen. Spuds immediately went head first into the Zubat, which seemed to injure the tiny bat pretty well. Zubat quickly retaliated by flying up to Spuds and sinking his teeth into his neck. Spuds let out a rather painful-sounding yelp when Zubat drew blood. This was not going to be pretty. Koffing decided to get started by blowing out a nauseous gas from his mouth that spread over the whole grove. Spuds, Zubat, and I all started hacking up a lung, but it seemed to affect me the most. Koffing used this to his advantage and rammed himself into Spuds. The poor guy went flying into a rock. This was not going well for him.

"Make…help…please…" He begged with a weak plea. I honestly had no clue what to do here. My time was running out however. Zubat turned to me and looked ready to strike. I really didn't want to get bitten by him. I frantically looked around when I noticed Spuds' knapsack laying on the ground. That's right! That explosive thing is in there! I rushed over to the bag and dug out the seed with the red lining. I readied my shot at Zubat, who was closing in fast. I chucked it with all my power and, surprisingly, got him right in the face. The moment the seed hit him, it glowed pure white before bursting into a nasty, fiery explosion. Zubat screeched loudly as he got blown far off into a distant rock. The resulting collision clearly knocked him out, or even possibly killed him. I chose to believe the former, as I really didn't want to be branded a killer.

The blast provided a good distraction for Spuds, who mustered up the energy to charge into Koffing, sending him my direction before collapsing again. I'm not sure what he was expecting from that. I once again had to think quickly as Koffing was flying towards me. I didn't have anything to explode him with. Wait. I was a Shinx! What kind of moves does Shinx have? I didn't really have to consider anything but a basic tackle attack. I readied myself as Koffing flew closer, and then rammed myself into with brute force. The resulting combo efficiently knocked Koffing out. I went over to Spuds to see if he was okay. He looked pretty beaten up, and I once again had no clue what to do. Spuds was clearly not in any condition to get up, but I had to figure something out. I think he noticed my cluelessness.

"M-Maki…in my bag, the Oran Berry…" Well at least I knew what that was. I waddled over to his bag and rummaged through to find the blue berry. I ran it over to him and helped him eat it. Within seconds, he was completely rejuvenated. That was pretty amazing. He got up and went over to Zubat and took the rock back. He turned to me afterwards.

"Let's get out of here Maki." I nodded in agreement. I was definitely done with whatever the hell happened here. We made our way back out to the beach. It was getting close to nightfall now. This didn't bode well for me. I had absolutely no idea where to go now. I would have to find a nearby town and see if there was some native version of a hotel or inn. Wait, that wouldn't work, I had no money. I would have to set up camp in a forest or something. No. I wouldn't rest until I got home. I did _not_ want to be in this body any longer than I had to. I turned to Spuds to say my farewells.

"Well…I would say that was fun, but it was the furthest thing from fun. I best be going now." I said as I turned away from to start walking. He seemed to have other ideas however.

"Listen, Maki. What are you gonna do now? I mean…you're a human trapped inside a Shinx's body in a world you're completely unfamiliar with. Do you have any idea of what to do?" He questioned. Well, he got me there. I really did have no idea. "Well, I did have one idea for you." He continued.

I tilted my head at him, "Which is?" Something told me I would not like his suggestion.

"Well, you see, I had a really fun time working with you, and we made a pretty good team against Zubat and Koffing back there." Yeah, I really didn't like where he was going with this.

"And, I have been wanting to become an explorer. I was gonna train at a guild in the nearby town, but I was too scared to join. But, when I was with you Maki, I don't know. I felt a surge of confidence. With you I felt like I could do anything. Even solve the mystery around this." He said as he got that oh-so-important rock out again. At this point I was getting sick of seeing it. "I found this a while back, and well, take a look."

I did take a look, but I only glossed over it. Yeah there was some weird inscription on it, but if I was being honest, I couldn't bring myself to care at all about this. I mean, I _clearly_ had some important shit to figure out. That thought didn't seem to cross his mind as he just kept going on and on about this.

"That weird inscription on there…there has to be a reason for it! So I decided from the day I got this I would become a first-class explorer! Hopefully through that, I can uncover the secrets that lie in my treasure. I call it my Relic Fragment." He had aspirations, and I admire him for that. However, I did not share these aspirations.

"So, back to my main point here…" He said as he put the Relic whatever back in his bag. "As I said before, I had gained a lot more confidence! Together, we could join the guild and become the greatest exploration team to ever exist! We'd be legends! So…what do you say? Maki, will you form an exploration team with me?"

Hell no.

Well, that's what I wanted to say, but given how emotionally unstable this guy seems, he would crumble to pieces if I declined. I had to mull this over to even consider the thought of this. The situation we were in was dangerous, and I assume it would only get worse. I also didn't plan on being here for very long, I really wanted to go home. I'm sure whatever friends and family I must have already, or would soon, notice my disappearance and panic would rise. I had to find a way out of this place fast. There was simply no way I could do it. I also really, really didn't want to.

"I can see you're thinking hard about this Maki. I know it's a big request, but think about this: Perhaps we could find out more about you? Who you are and how to get back to your home!"

God dammit, he had a good point there. I really didn't know who I was. All I knew was my name, the fact I was a human, and I wanted to go back home. If I ended up here, maybe there was something that could point me back home! I had no choice but to accept, despite the fact I was not really into this stuff at all.

"Alright Spuds, I'll form a team with you." I said reluctantly. His eyes immediately brightened and I swear I saw them sparkle.

"R-Really!? You will!? Oh thank you Maki! Thank you!" He said while half-hugging me, which I would have appreciated I warning for. "We have to go to the guild now!" What? It was almost night time.

"Do you think they'd still be open? It's pretty late it seems." I said, "Maybe we could just try tomorrow?"

"No way! We have to go look now!" Before I really had a chance to respond, I was being dragged off by him again.

Looks like this is my life for now, hopefully it won't last…


	2. Chapter 2

(Just for clarification, Mika is male.)

I wasn't too sure where we were going, but it seemed like Spuds knew. We walked along the gravel path I had noticed some time ago, which seemed to go on forever. I was hoping for some quiet time to just absorb everything that is going on, but that was not Spuds' plan.

"I can't _believe_ we're doing this! I just know this is the start of something amazing! I wonder what the other apprentices are like? Do you think maybe there's some new people that we can work with? Or maybe we could team up with an older explorer so he can show us the ropes! What if w-"

"SPUDS!" I finally interrupted. "Please…just calm down for a minute? Can you do that?"

"No way Mika! I can't! I have so much energy, I feel like I'm gonna burst!" That question was supposed to be rhetorical. I wonder just how civilized these Pokemon are? I mean they clearly speak English, but do they understand concepts such as sarcasm and tone of voice? On second thought, what if it isn't English? Do Pokemon speak some universal language that they can all understand, and I'm just speaking that without knowing?

God. That is too much for me to think about. As if this situation couldn't get MORE confusing. I wanted to think this over but doing so would probably give me a migraine. I really needed some sleep soon. I noticed the path started to get more flat and clean. I hoped this meant we were getting close to some form of town or city or whatever they have here.

We approached a crossroad. There were three other directions we could go. I looked to Spuds for guidance, but he was already darting north. I sighed quietly before running after him. He got to a large set of stairs, but that did not stop him. He charged headfirst up them, leaving me in the dust. I decided that was not how I was going to go up, and instead walked up them. This was probably the most difficult thing I've had to do since I got here. The whole four legs thing was not working out for me. I slid down a few steps quite a few times, cursing with bumble backwards. Spuds walked to the top of the stairs and looked down at me.

"What are you doing down there Mika?" He called.

"I DO NOT LIKE STAIRS!" I yelled up to him. Spuds just laughed it off and went back down to help me up. Together, we slowly climbed up the seemingly endless stone steps. When we finally got to the top, I was greeted by a terrifying building that was in the shape of a Wigglytuff's body. The torch lighting made it only worse.

"What the _hell_ is that!?" Spuds looked over to me.

"It's the Wigglytuff Guild! What's wrong? Are there no Wigglytuff in the human world?"

"N-No I know what a Wigglytuff is, but _why_ is the building in the shape of one!?"

"Ohhh…you see, Pokemon that run any kind of business tend to build their shops with their looks in mind! It's just a tradition that runs around here." He said like it was a totally normal thing to do.

"Yeesh…doesn't that seem a bit conceited to you? If not, then just plain creepy to look at?"

"No, not really. C'mon! Let's go!" We approached the building when Spuds pointed out a grate on the ground in front of the entrance (which was in Wigglytuff's stomach, even more creepy). This is when Spuds finally stopped in his never-ending track. I looked over at him. He was shaking. Another instance where he just flips emotions with the snap of a finger.

"What's wrong? Did you see something?" I asked.

"N-No. You see, I tried to enter the guild a little before I saw you on the beach, but this is where I chickened out."

"What? Why?" He ignored my further questions by shaking off his nervousness. He had that determined look again.

"I have to be brave! I can _do this_!" It seemed a bit unnecessary to hype yourself up for whatever was about to happen, but that just seemed to be how he did things. With a quick gasp, as if he were going underwater, he walked on top of the grate.

"HEY! I think there's someone at the gate! Go check it out!" A rather harsh and commanding voice said.

"Okay, okay!" A child-like voice responded. There was a moment of silence before he spoke up again.

"Bulbasaur! You're free to enter!" That's it? _That's_ what Spuds was so scared of? Just then, the loud voice came back.

"WAIT! There's another there! GET UP ON THE GRATE!" Spuds moved off it, signaling my turn to get on. I walked over the grate, which felt very weird on my feet.

"Um…uh…" The child voice muttered.

"WHAT!? What's the problem!?" The other guy was getting angry pretty quickly. The little voice was muttering and sputtering for a few more seconds.

"Uh…I think it's a…Shinx?" He said without any confidence.

"WHAT!? A SHINX!? That's impossible!"

"B-but it's what I think it is!" Were they arguing? What kind of professional place was this?

Me and Spuds looked at each other in confusion. The arguing continued for another minute before only silence remained. Shortly after, the door opened on Wigglytuff's stomach, and a Loudred walked out of it.

"WELL! It IS a Shinx! What brings you 'round Treasure Town!?" His voice was grating, like a more coherent version of tinnitus. I had no idea how to answer his question. I could just flat out say I'm from another world, but that probably wouldn't go so well. I only told Spuds because I was panicking. I had to make something up quick.

"LOOK! If you're some kinda SALES-Pokemon, we want NOTHING of it!" Was I supposed to be offended by that?

"N-No I'm not…I…arrived here very recently, it's a long story." Hopefully that was enough to satisfy him. He seemed to be analyzing me quite a bit. I was getting a bit uncomfortable. Spuds decided to chime in now.

"He's a good guy. He helped me out with a huge favor just an hour ago!" Well he tried.

"HM…Okay, you can come in." The Loudred said.

Was that all it took to gain trust here? Just a nice word from a non-threatening looking stranger? Good lord. The Loudred guided inside, but we were only met with a ladder going down. If stairs were hard for me, I had absolutely no idea how I was gonna do this.

"C'mon down here…" The Loudred ordered. He climbed down with ease, and I watched very carefully how Spuds went down the ladder. He obviously had this whole quadrupedal thing down pat considering he was born that way. He seemed to grip the top rung first, then once he got his back legs on the rung below, he moved all four feet to the side and slowly slid down the ladder. Well, that didn't help me. How the hell was I supposed to do that? I really didn't want to make a fool of myself again. I tried carefully to replicate what Spuds did, and I actually managed to get it right. I just slid down much slower than him. When we finally got down to the actual guild, it was rather expansive. There was a wide open area with various Pokemon walking around and mingling. It was close to night time, so I figured these must be the apprentices who stay here. I saw a Bidoof talking with a Sunflora and Corphish. The Bidoof and Sunflora looked nice enough, but the Corphish gave me an off look. He looked like he wanted to deck me with his giant claws. Why? I'm not too sure. I decided to ignore it for now. I did however notice Loudred was gone. Now me and Spuds were standing around completely lost.

"Hello! Hello!" A heard a raspy, but eloquent voice call. It kind of sounded like a strict teacher, or a bird.

We turned around to see where the voice was coming from. It was none other than a Chatot. He tilted his head at us when we made eye-contact.

"Well, what brings you here at this time of day? It's nearly sundown! It better be important!" Well I guess he wasn't the most sunshine guy.

"Well, I'm Spuds…and this is Mika! We're here to train as an exploration team!" The Chatot looked shocked by what he said.

"Y-You can't be serious! But you're just little ones! Surely you've heard of our program before, so you must now how brutal it can get!" Little ones? Did I age-down? And what does he even mean by that? There's a BIDOOF here!

"Well, yes I've heard it can be strenuous…but that doesn't stop us! Please, let us join!" Spuds begged. The Chatot did not seemed convinced.

"Be that as it may, we are wary to accept new guild members at this time, especially outsiders." He said as he shifted his eyes to me. I tilted my head at him, which I assumed was the equivalent of raising an eyebrow in this world. Was that a form of racism here? Should I be offended? I'm not sure.

"Mika is a really trustworthy guy! Believe me! He helped me out with a huge favor just a few hours ago! Please, let us join!" Spuds was getting desperate, which probably meant he was on the verge of crying.

"Hmmm…alright. I will take you to our Guildmaster. He can decide what to do here." Spuds' eyes did the sparkly thing again, and he turned to me. He had the widest smile possible, and I had to admit it was a bit contagious. I wasn't too thrilled about any of this, not in the least bit. I did _not_ want to do this exploring thing, but his smiles were honestly pretty adorable. It's like when a little kid is just so happy over the stupidest things. You can't help but smile at the ridiculousness of it.

"Well! Come with me you two!" The Chatot ordered. We followed him down another ladder, which I managed to get down a bit better this time. There was another open floor, but this lead into different hallways as well. The Chatot guided us to a bright pink door. It really stood out against the rocky walls, and not really in a good way. He turned to us and stood up straight.

"It is of utmost importance that you are respectful to our Guildmaster, you do not want to make him angry. Not only will that guarantee your denial in joining, but…well…yes it would be bad." Yet another confusing thing here, when will it end?

We nodded in understand, and the Chatot knocked on the door.

"Guildmaster! It's Chatot! I have two Pokemon here who wish to join our guild! Now I know we are limited in space but they insist to want to join here. If you wish, we can look things over and see if we have spa-" The pink door flew open and the Chatot was knocked out of the way but a Wigglytuff, who looked psychotically happy. He ran at us with a big a smile and shook both our hands quickly.

"Hiya! I'm Guildmaster Wigglytuff! I hear you want to join us! Yay! More friends! Isn't thatgreat Chatot!" He turned to the poor guy who was just now getting himself together. He cleared his throat before addressing us.

"Allow me to formally introduce myself. I am Chatot. I am the second-in-command here, and also the Guild's primary source of knowledge." He said with way too much confidence.

"Hi!" Spuds turned to Wigglytuff. "I'm Spuds, and this is Mika! We are hoping to form an exploration team and train under you at the guild!"

"Well of course! The more the merrier! Now let's get you all signed up!" I'll be honest, at this point I started to drift off. I was beyond tired. I needed some coffee to keep me up at this point. All the words people were saying were blurring together.

"Team…map…explore…"

"Yes…think…..idea!"

"Mika…." Ah, someone said my name. I tried my best to tune into what was going on.

"What do you…..want…..Mika?" What do I want? Well, I want to go to sleep but that wasn't happening. I needed to stay up, this was probably important. Caffeine. I needed caffeine.

"…..Caffeine….I want caffeine…" I muttered, most likely slurring my words pretty badly.

"Caffeine? Yeah, I like that!" Spuds said. Now I was confused. Wigglytuff looked ecstatic.

"Alright! From this point on, you will be known as Team Caffeine!" He said with a big goofy smile.

Oh shit. I just named our team in a near drunken slur of words? I kinda feel bad. Do the Pokemon here even know was caffeine is? Did Spuds just think it was some cool word I made up?

"Good! Now that you're all set up, I will show you to your room!" Chatot said. Oh GOD yes. Rooms meant comfy beds. Comfy beds meant _sleep_. I finally managed to smile instead of staring blankly ahead. I followed Chatot and Spuds out of Wigglytuff's room as he lead us down a hallway. There were quite a few interconnecting halls here, but we didn't take any of them. Instead, he led us straight down into a smallish area. All that was there was a small window and two piles of hay.

"Awesome! We get beds Mika!" Spuds said with enthusiasm. _These_ were beds? Tonight I could sleep fine, but if I wasn't dead tired I don't think I could sleep on these.

"Your training starts tomorrow, so rest well and prepared for an early rise and hard work!" Chatot said before walking off.

"This is great Mika! We did it! We actually made it into the Guild! I'm so happy! I don't think I can sleep!"

"Well, I can. And I will. Goodnight Spuds, I really, really need rest." I mumbled before climbing onto my bundle of hay. It was not _terrible_ , but not really good either. It provided cushion, but not enough for me to by comfy at all. Perhaps Pokemon didn't suffer from back pain and the like from sleeping wrong. I'll figure out in the morning I guess. There was no use thinking about it now, or any of the insane bullshit that happened today. I really hoped I would wake up and things would be back to normal. I guess there was only one way to find out.

I woke up expecting a comfy bed and a nice pillow to be under me, but that was not the case. It was a pile of hay. How disappointing. My hopes of this being a dream are slowly getting shattered. Or I guess shattered completely. I mean, if I was aware enough to think this was a dream, and it did happen to be one, I could alter stuff to my liking, right? Well that wasn't happening. So, I had to face the fact that this was indeed real. That only made me more upset that I wasn't on a bed right now. It didn't help it was still pitch black out. Despite being completely exhausted, I couldn't get to sleep. That was infuriating. I bitched to myself for another half an hour or so before finally lulling back to sleep.

Until the sound of a million souls of the damned screaming in agony rang into my ears.

"GET YER ASSES UP AND GET IN GEAR!" The voice screeched in decibels I didn't think existed. "I'm Loudred. We met yesterday and I'm the Guild's head security here, BUT I'M ALSO THE ALARM CLOCK AROUND HERE! AND YOU TWO ARE LATE FOR MORNING ADDRESSING! SO GET UP ALREADY!"

Well, if I didn't have tinnitus before, I definitely have it now. Loudred's voice was so loud, be and Spuds couldn't even bring ourselves to respond. When the Banshee left, the two of us managed to wake up and slug over to the main area. We were greeted by a large ensemble of other Pokemon. There was Loudred, Wigglytuff, and Chatot there. I also saw the Bidoof, Sunflora, and nasty Corphish from last night. I noticed a few new faces as well. I saw a Chimecho, Dugtrio and the Diglett I assumed was arguing with Loudred last night, and a Croagunk. What a group. Loudred turned to us, and I pleaded in my mind he wouldn't speak.

"You're LATE!" He ignored my inner-request. Thankfully he was immediately cut off by Chatot.

"HUSH! You voice is like nails on a bloody chalkboard!" He said sternly. Thankfully that shut him up quickly. "Alright everyone, it appears we are all in attendance! We will now like to formally welcome our newest recruits, Shinx and Bulbasaur!"

What? He absolutely knows our names. We said them numerous times yesterday. Come to think of it, why is everyone going by their species name? They clearly all have names considering Spuds has one.

"Hi everyone! Feel free to call me Spuds! And this is Mika here!" Spuds said sweetly. I was, surprise surprise, confused again. I noticed Corphish did not seem to like what Spuds said. His anger seemed more directed at me however. The hell was his problem. Everyone else seemed to be pretty excited about our presence, except Croagunk who seemed indifferent.

"Ahem, we shall now begin our morning cheers!" Our what now? "Ready everyone?"

"ONE! DON'T SHIRK WORK!"

"TWO! RUN AWAY AND PAY!"

"THREE! SMILES GO FOR MILES!"

"Alright Pokemon, time to get to work!" I looked at what just happened with utter shock. What in god's name just happened? Everyone seemed so cheery in saying that stuff, but did they not understand the meaning? That seemed incredibly…militaristic. It was almost like the Pledge of Allegiance, but more threatening. Spuds seemed confused as well, but not as shocked. He turned to me after everyone but Chatot left.

"Uh…so what do we do now?" He asked. As if on cue, Chatot fluttered over to us.

"Ah you two, I supposed you're pretty lost by now, am I correct?" He said in the most condescending way imaginable. I could tell he had an enormous ego. Great, my least favorite type of person. "Come with me, we'll get you two started!"

We followed him up the ladder to the upper level. He led us to a large bulletin board with various papers and flier attached to it. Most of the fliers had pictures of Pokemon, but some had items instead.

"This here is the Job Bulletin Board. This is where exploration teams find their calling. Despite the name, exploration teams do not just explore new places. They also help other Pokemon in need! Whether that be helping an injured Pokemon who is lost, recovering an item, or helping with a miscellaneous task, exploration teams will be there for anyone in need!" Spuds turned to me and helped clear some stuff up.

"You see Mika, lately the world has become more and more dangerous, so the need for exploration teams has risen! That's why the board is covered in different requests!" Bless his heart for being the only one here to help explain things to me.

"I've been meaning to ask you two…why is it you insist on being called your given names?" Chatot asked.

"What are you talking about, if anything I'm confused as to why everyone here is being called by their species. Don't you all have names?" I asked, because this was really starting to get to me. It seemed really impractical to not go by names. Chatot turned his head at me.

"Well, in this land Pokemon simply just go by their species name. Their given name isn't really used. You should know that Shinx."

"Well, where I come from, nobody does that." I stupidly said without thinking. Of course, this would cause him to ask the obvious question in response.

"Well, where _do_ you come from? Loudred has a point, Shinx are not seen around here anymore." I really did not want to encounter this question, but I suppose it was only a matter of time. If only Shinx were local, then nobody would question it. But _no_ , I had to be turned into a Pokemon that was not seen around here. I was not prepared to answer this. I only stared at Chatot blankly. Thankfully Spuds had come to the rescue.

"Mika doesn't really like to talk about his homeland, he wasn't well accepted there…" He said with fake pity. This seemed to satisfy Chatot enough for now, but I was worried he would pry further when Spuds wasn't there to bail me out.

"I see…I'm sorry to hear that. Well, back the board here. Because this is your first day, I will do the honors and pick a mission I deem acceptable for the two of you, sound fair?" Chatot questioned, expecting a yes. We both nodded in agreement.

"Please don't pick anything too dangerous!" Spuds pleaded, which probably wasn't the best thing to say on our first day. Chatot gave him a quizzical look before turning around to look at the board. He scanned it up and down for a minute before finally settling on one. He pulled it off the board and handed it to Spuds. "I believe this is a good start for you two!"

Spuds looked it over before reading it aloud, "Seeking an exploration team to assist me. I have misplaced my precious pearl somewhere in the Drenched Bluff. I need it to be with me at all times, and without it I start to panic! Please find it for me! -Spoink" Spuds looked at it some more before giving Chatot an angry look.

"You mean we have to go fetch some random thing a Spoink lost!?" I have to agree with him here. That didn't seem to exciting or in any way invigorating. Chatot only got angry at his outburst.

"I seem to recall you saying you didn't want anything too difficult! If THIS Is too much for you I suggest we reconsider your membership to our guild!" He said with fury. Good lord this guy had no patience. Spuds backed down after that, and begrudgingly accepted the job given to us. Chatot left with a harrumph and told us to be on our way. Spuds seemed more accepting of our situation now, but I certainly wasn't. If I was going into another dangerous place, I want it to be for a good reason. Not to fetch another item that's 'oh-so important'. If it was that important, why don't they get it themselves? Spuds clearly could have gotten the Relic whatever back alone if he tried hard enough, and this Spoink should be able to as well! This whole world seemed incredibly dependent on other's generosity, which did not suit me. I'm well aware enough to admit my own flaws, and I'm not the most generous person. I like to keep to my own life and not get involved in bullshit.

Spuds did not seem to notice my disdain for what we had to do, and I could tell he was going to drag me off again. I did not want that again, so I started walking out of the guild with him. We made our way out onto the crossroads we saw last night. It looked less bleak during the day, and the whole forested area was less threatening. As we walked down, I noticed there was a hole across the road. I was probably too tired to notice it last night, but I was curious. I figured I would check it out after we did our mission.

The way to the so-called "Drenched Bluff" wasn't very long. We walked along a grassy area for a while, a few trees here and there. Spuds was running his mouth the whole time, excited about our first ever mission as an exploration team. I completely tuned him out to think about my own issues. At this point I had to accept that I was stuck in this parallel world as a Shinx where humans were only heard of in fantasies and stories. This had blown my mind. Pokemon in my world were seen as subservient, which I could not ever let anyone here know. Yes, people formed very strong bonds with their Pokemon. I was never too close to Pokemon however. The fact that each and every one of them, spare a few, could most likely kill you if they wanted with their magical powers, kept me away from them for the most part. With the bond humans formed with Pokemon, they became integrated into our lives. Pokemon were a vital part of living nowadays, but before humans were able to domesticate them with Pokeballs, they were wild animals. With no Pokeballs here…wait. Are they Pokeballs here?

"I know it's not a huuuuge mission, but this is the start of something great Mika! We cou-" I had to cut him off. "Hey Spuds, you ever heard of a Pokeball?" He stopped dead in his tracks, but didn't look at me.

"Nope, never heard of them. Anyways! As I was saying…" He continued on his speech as he lead us to the bluff. That was…odd? It took him a minute to answer, but when he did he answered very fast. It seemed like he was avoiding something. I brushed it off as unnecessary suspicion. He was always a little bit off anyways.

I noticed the ground started to get mushier. The temperature dropped a little as well. I could tell we were entering some sort of swampland. This was disgusting to walk in without shoes or anything. The mud coated my fur, and I was definitely not licking that off. Was I supposed to do that as a Shinx? I mean, Shinx are cats right? Cats lick themselves. I haven't tried that, nor do I plan on it. Do the Pokemon here have running water to clean themselves? At home, humans tended to give their Pokemon baths after some time, so I assumed they could do minor grooming themselves. I was probably expected to do that as well.

Speaking of all that, I started to circle back around to my previous train of thought. There didn't seem to be Pokeballs in this world, so how did Pokemon domesticate and build civilization on their own? Were the rules different here? Were Pokemon never wild animals? No, that couldn't be true. The Shellos we saw back in the cave by the beach were definitely not civilized. They didn't seem to speak, and acted more like the wild Pokemon back home.

Eventually, we reached a stony passage way through the marshlands. It appeared to be the Drenched Bluff, and Drenched is absolutely the word I would use to describe it. The ground was mostly all puddle, and not ground. We both splashed around as we waded into the Bluff.

"Well, it seems like we're here. Spoink's pearl should be around here somewhere, I would assume probably pretty deep into the bluff, or else he would have gotten it himself." Spuds said.

"Again, why couldn't Spoink do this himself? Aren't they capable of some psychic mind stuff?" I questioned. Spuds just shook his head at me. "That's not the point Mika, the point is he needs our help! So let's go!" Spuds shouted cheerfully.

"Yaaaay…." I said with much less enthusiasm.

We walked deeper and deeper into the bluff, thankfully without running into any wild Pokemon. I would really prefer to not get blasted with mud again. It seemed to _really_ hurt. Like, I know Pokemon moves can hurt, but it hurt more than I could imagine. I was stunned from the pain. Of course. I'm an Electric type. The mud attack must have been Ground type. It seems types and such were still a thing here.

Looks like I spoke too soon however. Spuds stopped me from walking and pointed towards a group of Anorith. Wait, _Anorith!?_ Those things are supposed to be extinct! How are they alive!? Things are really different here. Spuds nodded at me, indicating we were going to engage in a fight. He expected me to help, but I really didn't want to. There were only two of the shrimp over there, he could definitely handle them. He charged forward, unsheathing his vines and grabbed one of the Anorith before slamming into a wall. This angered the other Anorith, and then another. And another. There were now three Anorith swarming Spuds. He looked panicked briefly, but stood his ground. He rammed into one of them, but it didn't do much. It retaliated by slicing at his side. Spuds let out a yelp and I saw blood drip from the scratch. He cringed a bit and shot his vines at the Anorith that cut him. The vines slapped the wild shrimp and pushed it back. Unfortunately, Spuds was caught off guard by the other two Anorith. They jumped him and started mincing him up. He let out a series of whines and yells. This wasn't good. I didn't want to, but I had to help him. There weren't any of those explosive seeds, so I had no idea what to do. I had very little time to think, or else Spuds would be done for.

Wait a second. I'm a Pokemon! Pokemon have moves right? Now I had to think: What moves can a Shinx use? I mean, there was a basic tackle. Anyone could do that. So I did. I charged towards the Anorith with all my might and slammed it against one of the stone walls. It screeched from the collision and I bashed it again. It seemed down for the count, so I turned to the other one. It was too late however. The last Anorith got the jump on me and sliced right across my chest. I groaned in pain and expected more to come, but it didn't. The Anorith went back to Spuds! It must have sensed he was weaker. I had to get to him fast. I tried, but the gash across my chest rendered me practically immobile. I tried with all my might to push forward, and focused all my might on getting there as quickly as possible. If only there was some way to get their quicker…

My vision briefly distorted around me. It felt like shot forward in light speed. I was suddenly pinning the fainted Anorith against a wall. What the hell just happened? Everything went so quickly. Quickly? Was that Quick Attack? Could a Shinx do that? I had no time to focus on that now. I flipped through my bag to get a roll of bandages. I patched up my gash before rushing over to Spuds. I reached into his bag and pulled out an Oran Berry for him. I helped him eat it, and as he was regaining his energy I started bandaging him up. Eventually he got up to his feet, but struggled a bit.

"A-Are you okay Spuds?" I asked, probably a stupid question. He simply nodded his head and kept eating the berry. Once he was finished, he turned to me. He seemed a bit angry at me, but I also didn't think he could actually be truly mad at me. He let out a content sigh and started going forward.

"Hold on! Are you okay enough to keep going!? You're still pretty beat up!"

"Oh this is nothing, Pokemon suffer these kinds of injuries all the time. Let's just find the pearl and get back home." He said in the most monotone voice I've heard him use.

We searched down the bluff more and more, thankfully not running into any more wilds. Spuds had yet to say anything else, and it was starting to weird me out. I felt an apology was in order.

"Listen…I'm sorry about what happened back there, I panicked, and didn't really know what to do." Spuds stopped walking and turned to me.

"Y'know, I was pretty angry with you. It wasn't a very good thing to do letting me charge in to that alone. It was honestly pretty selfish of you." Wow. No punches pulled there. "But I was thinking, and I really can't blame you. I have to take in consideration your situation. I'm glad you managed to learn a few moves, it will be helpful in the future. Just promise me you'll always have my back, okay?" Well, I can have his back while I'm here, but not _always_. I don't plan on staying. I nodded to satisfy him and fix whatever issue was going on. He seemed okay now, and gave me a smile before pressing on.

If this is how _every_ exploration mission was going to be, I would need to find a way out of this world fast.


End file.
